These two verses describe, first how rain is formed, and then how it comes down. Verse 27 is uncertain, and translations differ greatly in the way they handle it.

For he draws up the drops of water describes how God takes drops of water and causes them to go up to where he is thought to be. Some scholars make a change in the word water to get “from the sea.” This, however, is unnecessary. Good News Translation‘s translation “takes water from the earth” is not a change in the text but an attempt to say from where God takes the drops of water. The implication may be that God gets the water from the earth according to the description in Genesis 2.6, “a mist went up from the earth.” It is sufficient to say “He (God) draws up to himself, lifts up, drops of water,” or as Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch says, “He draws drops of water up to heaven.”

He distils his mist in rain is literally “they distil,” as the Revised Standard Version footnote says. He refers to God, but the Hebrew “they” refers to the drops of water in the previous line. Thus “He draws the water drops that distil rain from the flood,” and in verse 28a “that trickle from the clouds.” Distils translates a transitive verb meaning “to filter, refine,” and is used in 28.1 referring to refining gold. Many translations, including Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, change to the singular subject, referring to God. Pope argues that his mist refers to the reservoir of underground water in Genesis 2.6, and translates “flood.” Since it is God who is being praised for his ways in nature, it is probably best to make God the subject, as in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, and translate “and God turns the drops of water into rain.”

Which the skies pour down begins with a relative particle referring to the drops of rain in verse 27b. Skies translates “clouds.” Pour is plural in Hebrew and has “clouds” as its subject. The sense is “The clouds pour down the rain.” Good News Translation supplies God as the agent, “He lets the rain pour from the clouds,” which most likely expresses the poet’s thought.

And drop upon man abundantly: abundantly translates a word which most interpreters take to be an adjective rather than an adverb; they then translate, for example, “upon many men.” However, Pope argues that the expression is an alternative form of the word translated “showers” in Deuteronomy 32.2; and since the Hebrew ʾadam “man” is a variant form of the word ʾadamah meaning “earth,” he therefore translates “pour on the ground in showers.” This suits the context better than Good News Translation “in showers for all mankind.” However, it is not possible to eliminate the interpretation of Revised Standard Version or Good News Translation, and so a wide range of choice is given for translation. In some cases translators may have to follow the interpretation of a major language Bible, provided that translation contains one of the suitable choices. Verse 28 may also be rendered “He makes the clouds send down rain that showers the earth” or “He makes the clouds send down rain upon people everywhere.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, Wiliam. A Handbook on Job. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .